Prologue
It had been ages since humans last stepped on the face of the moon. Over the course of centuries, humanity had admired the Earth's companion, never knowing what history lay on its surface. The ruins of an ancient kingdom turned to dust over the ages, yet humanity could only gaze upon the nightly pearl and imagine how wondrous its ethereal surface could be. After many ages, technology finally aligned fantasy with reality and people were able to walk the immortal dunes of the Sea of Tranquility. Then, another lapse in humanity s affair with the Moon, until a coalition of nations once again mustered their dreams and sent a new generation of dreamers into the stars.
Humanity reached out and touched the Moon once more.
The desolate magnificence of the lunar landscape was as brilliant and frightening as Commander Fujikawa had imagined, the infamous photographs and grainy video he remembered hardly capturing its true beauty. A mixture of fear and wonder churned in his stomach and he easily forgot that surrounding him was a void of everything needed to sustain his life. Across the ashen surface to the piercing black horizon sat the sapphire Earth, a comforting reminder that home was not too far away. It made him feel at ease. He had spent the last year training for this mission and many years before that fighting for his chance to board the spacecraft and journey the nearly four hundred thousand kilometers to the Earth s celestial attendant. It was worth every sacrifice.
As he awkwardly bounded over ancient craters and mummified slopes of silky dust, the unusual reading his instruments drew him closer and closer to an unusual rock formation a short distance ahead. Fujikawa took one last look back to his rover, a subconscious instinct to reaffirm his link to his distant spacecraft, and then back towards the gaping maw of the rock formation. The sound of his own breathing resounded in his heavy spacesuit, making him hesitate and try his radio again.
Silence.
He had experienced problems with his systems ever since he approached the formation, but the possibility of discovering something fantastic denied his core instincts.
Despite the anxiety he suddenly felt, he pressed on and continued to check the unusual energy wave showing up on his arm-mounted display. It was unlike anything he had seen before, but not powerful enough to register from orbit. The waves on his display pulsed in a hypnotizing rhythm, but they also urged him to continue in defiance of standard procedure to establish contact with the lander module.
At a distance of only a few meters, the young commander could see a faint light emanating from what appeared to be a geological cavern leading down from the formation. The smooth entrance to this grotto was distinctly not natural, but nothing existed in his mind now but to continue on and discover what was beckoning him. Whether it was his own desire for fame or the soft voice he now began to hear through the barrier of his spacesuit, Fujikawa showed no reluctance to move into this alien environment, despite what unknown thing he might find.
Descending into the grotto, something magnificent presented itself in the reflective surface of his visor. It was so brilliant that he froze, staring in awe at the figure that stood before him. He even slipped up the protective visor from his helmet to make sure that he was not hallucinating, letting the magnificent figure reflect from his own two eyes.
A woman stood in the grotto. She stood defiant of all physical law and understanding, completely unprotected on the harsh surface of the Moon in nothing but flowing white gowns. A soothing glow surrounded her figure, making her angel-like against the countless crystal rock formations in the depths of the grotto. Her platinum hair billowed out into two beautiful ribbons, met by rounded spheres of hair at opposing sides of her head. Her two blue eyes were like reflections of the Earth, though the rocky cavern denied any glimpse of the distant blue jewel. On her forehead was a crescent moon, golden and lovely against her milky-white skin. It was as if the goddess of the Moon had materialized before him, beckoning to him with an outreached hand of delicately welcoming fingers to approach even closer.
The commander stepped forward, his eyes dulled into a state of obedience. He mumbled incoherently of gods and goddesses even as he was finding it harder and harder to speak or even concentrate on the spectacular vision before his eyes.
The woman smiled serenely, parting her lips in what seemed to be an effort in futility, yet as everything about her defied his scientific mind, so did her angelic voice. "You have found me." she said softly, her voice resonating in his ears.
By this time, Fujikawa was entranced, unable to discern her voice or see her beauty. He only stared forward, locked into a daze and completely under her command.
Turning from the entranced astronaut, the woman looked fondly upon the spectacular growth of crystals in the grotto. It was a geode of glittering shapes and colors that had long been the only thing she found comfort in throughout the endless ages she had waited. The crystals sung to her in unison, making her close her eyes in joy. Her own voice stretched out among them, a distinct difference from the way she had been speaking to the man who had stumbled across their tomb, "The Earth awaits. The time of the Exercitus Crystallis has arrived."
The woman's eyes opened once again and she looked upon a distinct gathering of several crystals. These crystals were far different from the others and glowed with a pulsing light. It was these few crystals that the woman looked upon with the most affection. "My dearest ones, soon you will be what you have always destined to be, but not bound by the cruel destiny meant for you. We shall find the Black Petal Shard together," she said to the choir of crystals around her, then pulled her arms tightly around herself as she closed her eyes to the desolation of the Moon, and to the ethereal beauty of the Earth that existed in her mind, "And with it, anything shall be possible."
In the days that followed, the spacecraft that had brought the humans to the Moon returned to the Earth carrying fantastic samples and so much data that it would take months to analyze it all. It also brought back something completely unexpected. Commander Fujikawa said nothing of the cargo he brought with him, nor did he fully understand why he it was so important to him to keep it a secret. He only knew it drove him, his singular thought being to carry it to Earth.
Seven days later, the spacecraft entered the Earth's atmosphere. With it came a remnant of history forgotten since the days of the Silver Millennium, when a great Moon Kingdom had existed but had since faded in the white dunes of the Sea of Serenity. Now this remnant would fall upon the people of the Earth, bringing with it a destiny of forgotten will and writing new pages into the tome of life of a young girl named Tsukino Usagi, and her other self known as the sailor-suited soldier; Sailor Moon.